1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to improvements in detecting and reporting conditions within bar code symbol reading systems deployed at retail POS stations, to avoid system breakdown or failure, and thus the loss of sales or decrease in worker productivity in retail store environments.
2. Brief Description of the State of Knowledge in the Art
In general, prior art POS-based bar code symbol reading systems only alert the cashier and/or manager after error events have occurred, based on log records of error events after they have occurred. Hitherto, retail managers have been satisfied that reports can be generated and action can be discussed regarding these and other fatal errors, using after-the-fact techniques. However, this reactive approach has resulted in unnecessary expenses, and lost revenues in the retail environment.
Also, currently, prior art POS-based bar code symbol reading systems and cash register computer systems lack the capacity to report problems with symbologies and product labels that have generated errors or presented difficulties during POS scanning operations. Reports on difficult to scan and read bar code symbols and product items often get lost along the chain from the cashier, to the store manager, and to product representatives. Once a product item is approved for the sale in the retailer's store, there is usually no quality monitoring of the product and the symbology that it represents after it is released into the retailer's inventory.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for a new and improved bar code symbol reading system having the capacity to support predictive diagnostics and reporting functions, on both internal events and external events, while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art technologies.